In the initial stages of the story, I wasn't quite sure as to how I would get a good grasp of Clarissa Dalloway, since this narrator is so unique. The narrator doesn't remain with Clarissa, and has already established its ability to travel within the deep minds of multiple characters. From what we saw of Clarissa in the beginning, all I could really grasp was her bird-like qualities, and the fact that she had been sick for a while. Yet while reading last night's chapter on her encounter with Peter, it really pulled together a stronger image of her, and I could finally see at how Woolf focuses on her as a person.
On page 40, Peter says, "Here she is mending her dress; mending her dress as usual, he thought; here she's been sitting all the time I've been in India; mending her dress; playing about; going to parties..." The narrator is clearly revealing Peter's true thoughts on Clarissa in that moment. Yet I can't help but disagree with Peter. Clarissa is so much more than dresses and parties than she let's on: her insecurities at being less educated, at not being invited to Mrs. Bruton's gathering. While one receives the impression that she's just a plain woman, she has tumultuous thoughts that I feel not many of her female counterparts would feel. While Clarissa is a person who seems to go with more "safe" or "conservative" options, as we've seen with her decision to marry Richard and her love of hosting parties, it seems she is exactly the opposite of everything she does. There's conflict within her, and it's fascinating to see the contrast in the narration as Peter thinks of her as a fancy, boring woman who hosts parties. However, as the narrator shifts back to Clarissa's consciousness, it's the opposite of everything other characters observe.
I believe Woolf purposefully places these shifts. In class, we discussed Clarissa's insecurities and her grappling with the fact she is a woman living in this day and age, where society has certain expectations they expect women to conform to. However, in my eyes, Mrs. Dalloway has almost a feministic edge to it. The fact that Woolf has this upperclass, white woman living a seemingly perfect life, struggle, leads me to think that Woolf is protesting the patriarchy. Just like her decision to throw in the wild character of Sally, who is very much a woman who doesn't conform to society.
I like your point about how Peter is judging Clarissa on a superficial level. Woolf also portrays Clarissa as a character with some depth when she ponders how her life would be different if she had made different choices in life, which shows that she thinks beyond parties and dresses. I especially like your conclusion about how Woolf is protesting patriarchy because it explains why Clarissa questions some of the decisions in her life, even though she is living an upper-class life married to a politician. When Woolf has Clarissa feeling bad about herself because she doesn't want to be trivial and wants to be more than a wife who throws parties, it fights the cliche that woman who live a wealthy life care more about their social standing than anything else, such as their education. The fact that sometimes Clarissa feels bad about not receiving a higher education once again portrays her as more than just a superficial character.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about Woolf writing Mrs. Dalloway with a feminist edge to it. I definitely agree that despite her privilege, Clarissa does struggle to be contempt with the path that she's chosen to follow in life. As we've talked about in class, I think a large portion of her internal struggles have to do with the gender roles of her time and her wanting to be more than just a politician's wife, but not knowing any other way to live. I also really liked how you pointed out that Peter's opinion of Clarissa only scratches the surface of who she really is, which shows how even Peter, who knows Clarissa better than almost anyone else, cannot see that being a "politician's wife" is a role that she was not meant to play.
ReplyDeleteThere is also the idea that one side of an argument is usually not enough to make a decision. Peter's interpretations of what Clarissa thinks and does provides some more detail into not only how she perceives herself, which we get a lot of, but also how she is perceived, making her self that much more real. It can be compared to what we are literally doing right now, looking at a person and fleshing out the character from what we know.
ReplyDeleteI also saw the story as that -- a protest of the patriarchy. Clarissa's character, though seemingly boring and ordinary at first, has a lot of depth to her. She hates the fact that she is not as educated as she would like to be, and that people judge her for her parties. She wants to be more than just a politicians wife, she wants to do more with her life. It was interesting to see how such an (externally) normal, upperclass character of her time was in fact going through all these struggles internally. People saw her as just a Richard's wife but she was more than that.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea about Clarissa being more than what she seems on the surface. Having a character like Peter who criticizes her and views her as everything that she fears people perceive her as creates a really interesting dynamic both in Clarissa's own mind and in their interactions with each other.
ReplyDeleteClarissa is definitely more than she seems, but she doesn't do anything to change peoples opinions of her, we learn that she knows what Peter thinks of her, but doesn't do anything to change it which is very much a Clarissa thing. But, she does say that she truly enjoys throwing her parties, and, she does love Richard, she isn't thinking about the past wishing she had done something different, she is just wondering "what if?".
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